Hack Your Subject Lines To Improve E-Mail Productivity

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  1

  gaelgrad

  07/07/08 | Report as spam

  Meeting necessary?

  Do you think that this could be implemented without a meeting or some sort of a 'cheat sheet' distributed to colleagues? What might be the best way to ensure that your timesavers are being utilized?

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  2

  CC Holland

  07/08/08 | Report as spam

  Nah, just a quick memo should do

  The idea here isn't to make life MORE difficult by creating a ton of tricky acronyms. These are just a few ideas. I think most people would get the hang of it within a few days...EOM, for me, was something I picked up by accident a year or so ago and I gotta say, it's been quite helpful. As for the others? Take what's useful and ignore the rest.

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  3

  Enrico Pallazzo

  07/07/08 | Report as spam

  E-mail Shorthand

  I'm wondering the same thing gaelgrad is. I haven't seen those abbreviations used in corporate e-mail before, and I'm wondering whether others would know what it meant without being previously briefed. For example, if I got the sample message used for "EOM," I'd have thought the meeting was about "End of Month" figures or something like that.
  
  For brief communications, I've found Instant Messaging can do the trick as well. I previously worked at a company where we were required to have, and log into, ICQ at all times when we were on the clock. I know some companies are worried about employees abusing the IM programs, but I think the benefits could outweigh those problems.

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  4

  CC Holland

  07/08/08 | Report as spam

  IM rules

  I'm a big fan of IM as well! I think it's a definite boost to efficiency. Thanks for the suggestion!

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  5

  Live2Post

  07/07/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Hack Your Subject Lines To Improve E-Mail Productivity

  Another way is to have email preview ('reading pane' in Outlook) enabled so you don't have to ever open any emails.

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  6

  CC Holland

  07/08/08 | Report as spam

  If you're on the go, not so much...

  Yep, the Outlook pane is great -- but if you're on the go (e.g., iPhone etc.) it's a little tough to use that option. Especially with limited bandwidth, not having to open an e-mail can be a lifesaver.

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  7

  David 42

  07/07/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Hack Your Subject Lines To Improve E-Mail Productivity

  I like the ideas here, but since I am a novice to most text speak stuff, should I forward this on to my manager and my team? I just have this feeling that instead of saving time I will have to post a little glossery next to my screen to decode these messages.

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  CC Holland

  07/09/08 | Report as spam

  You'll learn fast!

  I think you'd be surprised how quickly you can pick these things up. After all, LOL wasn't common parlance all that long ago, but now it's hard to find someone under 75 who doesn't know what it means.